Potpourri

This month, we’re going to dive right into the questions, because it seems like everyone who sent one in is in a rush.

He goes far beyond the scope of his duties as a medical expert and gives his patients much more than one could ever expect. For you see, he gives his heart.

I’m excited to introduce my new Sukkos decoration concept. I couldn’t help but notice the variety of interesting leathers and vinyls available on the market. Sorting through the many different colors and textures, it dawned on me that I could easily create Sukkos décor using one of my favorite combinations, leather and nail heads.

In a pinewood paneled roof studio in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, Avraham and Rachel Kolberg, Breslover chassidim, teach yoga classes to groups of men and women. Purple and blue exercise mats are neatly folded on wooden shelves. Purple foam blocks, weights of up to twenty kilos and ropes as thick as a man’s wrist are all stacked neatly along the sides of the studio. Plenty of light floods the room from large windows that face the Judean Hills. The sense of peace in this studio comes from more than just the pleasant surroundings.

Sometimes, you see it coming and sometimes you don’t. You move into a community thinking, “We’ll stay here for a while,” and then things change, and your position in chinuch is not as certain as you had believed.

Just imagine you are walking through a beautiful garden. Feast your eyes on the colors of the flowers, the grass at your feet, the leaves of the trees in shades from green to silver. Listen to the birds. Let the sunshine caress your face. Smell the perfume.

If you’re looking to get away from the irritations of technology and people in your way, the best place to go is Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Our daughter would tell us glowing stories about how Mrs. Mike made the pesukim come alive, tricks she taught them to memorize and recall the mitzvot, how each mitzvah perfectly fit women…

They may call them the dog days of summer, but for me August is the best part of the steamy season. The nights are just a tad cooler, those home grown tomatoes and cucumbers are finally ready to be enjoyed, and while there is that secret thrill of getting those school bus passes in the mail (for us parents, at least), there is still plenty of time to enjoy summer and all of its glorious opportunities.

We’ve all had those moments when we think we just can’t bear anymore. When it seems the walls are crashing down and we’re powerless to stop it. “What now?” we wonder, “What else can I do?” Surprisingly, in these exact moments we have a lot more power than it seems.

For me, there's nothing like making challahs for Shabbos. But I can't say it's always been the height of my week. There was a time when baking fluffy, light-as-a-feather challahs was a total mystery to me.

Ever since I started this advice column, I’ve noticed that quite a number of readers – and you in particular - haven’t been sending me questions. And I get it. You don’t know what to ask. I don’t give “real advice,” by which I mean “advice you can use without making the situation worse,” and you have no idea what kind of questions you can ask that I might have answers for. With Dr. Yael, for example, you figure that you should ask her problem-type questions. With an “ask the rabbi” column, you ask him shaylos. But what am I an expert in?

The perfect appetizers require minimal effort by the hostess and taste so good your guests will think you spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking. These recipes do exactly that. They are super tasty, sorta fancy and seriously easy! I used wonton wrappers to create wonton cups, and then filled them up with some of my favorite ingredients, such as Creamy Mac & Cheese, Zesty Taco Fillings, Savory Pizza Toppings and Sweet Whipped Cream with Fresh Fruit!

In the "How did we ever live without it?" department, there is no doubt that GPS joins the ranks of cell phones, velcro and zip lock bags as a relatively new invention that has become an indispensable part of our lives. First invented for use by the military, the Global Positioning System became av

Yeast dough is considered one of the most basic but complicated of the dough family. Just think of the first cakes you made – I'm almost sure they weren't yeast cakes. But mine were!

I would have to say that one of the most annoying things about having a newspaper advice column, aside from all these people writing to me and asking for advice, is that they frequently don’t tell me WHY they’re asking.

It's hard to believe that June is finally here, but one look through the day's mail is enough to convince me that the school year is almost over and summer will be here before I blink. What makes me say that? The plethora of large cream envelopes, addressed in calligraphic letters, bearing stamps with pictures of creamy white roses.

Welcome back to “You’re Asking Me?” where we attempt to answer questions sent in by people who fortunately have fake names, so they won’t be embarrassed. I don’t know how they got through school, though.

Not too many Jewish World War II survivors from Germany can say that they had the distinction of being both interned in a concentration camp and liberating the captives in that same camp. Erwin Weinberg did just that.

The date May 4th, 1945 will forever be etched in their memories, and now it will be forever etched in ours. That fateful day toward the end of World War II was the day that American soldiers liberated Gunskirchen Lager, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

Welcome back to “You’re Asking Me?” where we delve into questions sent in by readers. We might as well. It’s not like we can listen to music.

I stare, and I stare, trying to connect to those deep, seeing, eyes, to the wisdom and depth within that face. And all I can think, murmurs sliding in a circle through my mind - is, hadras panim... hadras panim... hadras panim...

While Pesach cleaning, I found a whole bunch of questions that were sent in at some point that I somehow haven’t gotten to. So I’m going to address them now, in the hopes that doing so will get me out of Pesach cleaning.

Recently I had the opportunity to spend some times with Bernard (Bernie) Walz and get a glimpse of his war experiences.

I get a lot of questions around Purim, and I don’t always have a chance to answer them all. So let’s get started:

Artisan gefilte fish. For some, the phrase seems like an oxymoron. While salmon, chilean sea bass and tilapia may all be in vogue, gefilte fish, the traditional ground fish mixture that is de rigueur in Ashkenazic Jewish households at Shabbos and Yom Tov meals, is like the Henny Youngman of fish: it gets no respect.

You know what I noticed since I started writing this column? That people don’t write in to ask questions so much as they write in to complain.

The blade of the penknife sliced cleanly into my thumb and a thin stream of crimson blood appeared immediately, getting thicker by the second. I dropped the penknife onto my lap and reached for the green hem of my school skirt. I pressed it tightly against my thumb. Only then did I glance up at Sister Giovanna who was standing, as usual, slightly to the right of the black board. I raised my hand and hoped that she would call on me soon.

On the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, over twenty-one hundred years ago, the Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated after it was wrenched from the hands of the defiling Greeks. Thus ended a war no one planned or even dreamed could happen.

Welcome to “You’re Asking Me?” the column where people are basically saying, “This guy doesn’t know me at all. Let me ask him for advice.”